Expository essay (There are several perspectives of Malaysian society towards widows) by Nur Sofea

 

Expository essay

There are several perspectives of Malaysian society towards widows

In Malaysia, there are 45 420 divorce cases registered Nationwide in 2021. When people are divorced, so normally the woman will become a widow and men will become a widower. According to Santrock (2002), there are more than 12 billion widows in the United States; the number of widows is five times that of widowers. In Malaysia, people always have a different perspectives or different views on widows or in Malay we call "janda”. There are several perspectives of Malaysian society towards widows.

The first perspective is had a negative view towards the Malaysian community. According to Ollenburger and Moore (1996) about the norms that happen in society, stating that the life of widowed women greatly affects psychology because women tend to live longer than men. This is said because widows are often placed as women in a low position, weak, helpless and needing more love.

On the other hand, which even worse when the community says that widows are husband snatchers or in malay we say "perampas suami". For instance many men will come into her life and boast about herself. Not only that, many men will also try to trick the widow falling into his arms, because widows are often considered as weak and thirsty for love. Because of that, many widow has suffer causes of that men.

In addition, Malaysian society always looks askance at widows. This is happen because many widow used to robbed other people's happiness. But not all of them, only a few do that. For instance, many men think widow good at seducing so the man or someone's husband will be deceived by the temptation of a widow. Because of this example, most Malaysians society say that widows are the destroyer of the household or the destroyer of happiness.

To sum up, we should not look askance at widows because widows also have feelings and hearts to take care of like ordinary people because not all widow has bad attitude. Moreover, we as Malaysians we need to change the negative perspective towards widows to a positive perspective so that widows do not feel neglected.